The “Mindful Researchers” initiative emerged in August 2020, by a collaboration of participants in the ESRI 2020 hosted by Mind & Life Europe. We are an independent grassroots community based on a shared intention –
to explore how our professional and research life can be integrated with our contemplative life, in all its possible meanings.
Being aware that this is a difficult path to follow within traditional academia, we aim to offer support to each other, to hold this inquiry as a living question and to put it into practice together.
Our main goals are to build community, support the needs and foster the creative potential of the community and our members. Thereby we aim to cultivate new contemplative cultures in science, academia and beyond.
We aim to cultivate new contemplative cultures in science, academia and beyond.
We are keen to co-create a supportive environment that can host and nurture a diverse ‘ecosystem’ of practices, interests, research collaborations and knowledge exchange on contemplative practices. This communal space is filled with life by people like you, practising together and bringing their creative ideas, which may also catalyse the emergence of new collaborative projects.
We aim to cultivate a space for collective inquiry, shared practice, and collaborative projects – an ecosystem or ‘living lab’ supporting the emergence of a new generation of researchers who pursue and co-create innovative and rigorous scientific/academic work rooted in genuine embodied, situated, contemplative practice.
In this way, we also intend to support and foster a beneficial transformation towards a more compassionate, generous, kind, collaborative, ethical academic culture.
Who are we?
The “Mindful Researchers” are a diverse community of academics, educators, artists, contemplatives, and other professionals – from young to senior – who wish to live and work in environments that welcome our creativity, our passionate interests, and our preferences for contemplative, phenomenological, enactive, participatory, co-creative, innovative, exploratory, … approaches.
We envision collaborative ways of science which are based in shared values and emphasise co-created projects, including the process of discovering what (research) questions we consider as most important to address.
The “stewards” team
While our initiative is based in participatory practices and principles, our organisational and administrative needs are taken care of by a dedicated team of active “stewards”. These currently include:
- Francesco Noera
- Wolfgang Lukas
Would you like to join our team and co-create with us? If so, please let us know!
The “gardeners” group
From early 2021 until Spring 2022, a more active sub-group of our community called “gardeners” met on a weekly basis in order to practice together, listen to the community’s emerging needs and ideas, co-facilitate our community events, co-create new formats, and develop the Mindful Researchers project and community further. Formerly active “gardeners” included:
- Annika Lübbert
- Dara James
- Enrico Fucci
- Francesco Noera
- Mary Rees
- Nikola Winter
- Willeke Rietdijk
- Wolfgang Lukas
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Yoga Science Foundation and to Mind & Life Europe for funding, mentoring and other support.
We also thank the Mind & Life Institute, as well as many individuals who have inspired and supported our development in various ways. A deep bow of gratitude goes to all our past and present collaborators and community members.